“I am very happy that AIS came to submit the bid documents today [yesterday]. Our job is done,” said the NBTC secretary-general, Takorn Tantasith, yesterday, the only day the watchdog would receive the bid application.

AIS’ share price yesterday slid 1.57 per cent, closing at Bt157 per share.

The NBTC will announce the qualified bidder on May 23 and launch the re-auction on May 27 at 9am. The licence term is 15 years.

The NBTC decided to re-auction the licence after Jasmine International’s subsidiary, Jas Mobile Broadband, failed to pay the initial payment upfront for the licence, which it won in an auction last December. The starting bid price in the re-auction is Bt75.6 billion, the final price Jas bid for the licence.

Under the rules, the NBTC will hold the re-auction even if there is only one bidder. Once the bidding starts, the bidder would first be required to confirm the starting price. After that, if it stands by the price, the bidding will end.

Takorn said he would ask the NBTC telecom panel to convene after the re-auction ends to consider endorsing the bid outcome. After the endorsement, the winner will have to pay the first instalment of the upfront licence fee of Bt8.04 billion and place three bank guarantees on the remaining upfront fee within 90 days. Takorn believes cash-rich AIS would pay the first instalment before the deadline.

AWN and True Corp had picked up the bid documents, but True sent a filing to the Stock Exchange of Thailand on Monday, informing the bourse of its board resolution that the company would not participate in the re-auction as it already has a very comprehensive spectrum portfolio with sufficiently large bandwidth totalling 55MHz.

True Group had already grabbed a 900MHz licence at the last auction in December with a bid of Bt76.3 billion.

Total Access Communication (DTAC) was the first telecom operator to announce that it would not join the re-auction. The company announced its decision last month

Meanwhile, the NBTC will finalise by May 28 the additional amount of damages it will seek from Jas for failing to fulfil the initial payment of the licence upfront fee.

The watchdog has already seized the Bt644-million bank guarantee placed by Jas. However, the company has insisted that it will not be liable for any additional compensation since the NBTC auction terms did not require the auction winner be responsible for any additional compensation, apart from the auction deposit of Bt 644 million.

Siam Commercial Bank, which opened its first branch in Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday, will add $25 million in capital by the end of this month into its foreign branch in Ho Chi Minh City. This will boost its total capital to $70 million in preparation for lending to Thai companies doing business in Vietnam, said Saranya Skontanarak, general director of the branch.

Bangkok Bank last week reported that it had boosted the capital of its Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi branches to a combined $250 million from $80 million.

Vichit Suraphongchai, executive chairman of SCB, said the bank had attached great importance to Vietnam because of its bigger population and the high growth of |its gross domestic product.

The FDI figure was also interesting enough for the bank to pursue more business.

The bank targets 25 per cent of Thai business in Vietnam by 2018, he said.

Several large companies from Thailand have entered Vietnam via mergers and acquisitions.

The TCC Group acquired cash and carry operator Metro, and the Central Group won bought Big C Supercenter from Casino Group.

The government of Vietnam has not opened up the banking industry to foreign players, but SCB became the first foreign bank in 20 years to receive a foreign branch licence in December because it has been here for over 20 years through its joint venture Vinasiam Bank.

That was after Vietnam’s government revised its policy for the banking industry in 2014 by asking joint venture banks to stop doing business because the JV platform had proved unsuccessful in helping to strengthen local banks.

The banking industry in Vietnam in the past few years had witnessed high bad debt, forcing the government to assign asset management companies to buy the bad assets to help the industry.

However, JV banks were not allowed to sell bad assets to AMCs.

The third-largest bank in Thailand decided to buy out its local bank partner and Charoen Pokphand, another Thai partner, on the condition that SCB can ask for a licence if it takes over all the good and bad assets from the JV bank.

SCB was willing to transfer all assets to itself if it could stay on here because Vietnam is a piece of the jigsaw to help SCB gain a presence in the CLMV group of countries.

In CLMV, Vietnam and Myanmar are high-potential markets but Vietnam is in pole position right now because of its political stability and economic policies that support foreign investment.

Saranya said her branch was carrying bad debt of $20 million out of its loan portfolio of $50 million.

After the head office in Bangkok injects capital of $25 million, the unit in Ho Chi Minh will not have to worry about the single lending limit rule.

Based on capital of $70 million, SCB Ho Chi Minh can set a credit limit to a single customer of $10 million and to a group of related customers of $17 million, she said.

Based on the trend of Thailand investing directly in Vietnam and the growing trade, the branch should be able to book $20 million of new loans.

It has set up a team to manage the existing problem loans that are backed by collateral, so its non-performing loan ratio could return to normal within two years.

The bad-debt ratio should not exceed 3 per cent, she said.

The major contributors to its loan portfolio will be Thai companies, followed by Thai-linked companies.

If the loan portfolio from Thai companies and Thai-linked companies is stable, the bank will take the next step of tapping local companies.

It expects to break even within two years.

The NPL ratio in Vietnam’s banking industry improved to 2.55 per cent last year from 3.25 per cent in the year before.

Lending in the country enjoyed double-digit growth thanks to the rise in foreign investment and trade.

This year, the authorities of Vietnam target loan growth of 18-20 per cent.

Vichit said foreign banks have a chance to grow in Vietnam because local banks are not strong enough to facilitate business activities.

Local banks in Vietnam are like local banks in Indonesia in the past. While local banks are busy building up their infrastructure, SCB will drive its business.

“We will make our branch strong before considering acquiring local financial institutions.

“SCB might consider doing retail banking on the digital banking platform because there is no need to use branches.

“We hope that what we’re doing in digital banking in Thailand |can leverage our footprints in international markets,” he said about |the next aspiration of SCB in Vietnam.

Mayuree Chaipromprasith, senior vice president for business promotion at Siam Piwat, said that with the facelift the new Siam Discovery complex would serve individual shoppers who are curious and want to try new things as well as discover new experiences.

“Both Siam Paragon, Siam Center, and the latest new Siam Paragon will have their own unique positioning, and will not cannibalise each another,” said Mayuree.

She said Siam Paragon offers high-end fashion brands, while Siam Center will serve people who look for trendy fashion products made by local Thai designers. Siam Discovery, however, will provide hybrid lifestyle products, a combination of imported luxury and local brands.

“The three shopping complexes will share the core values of Siam Piwat, which are: understanding [shoppers and tenants]; trustworthy; missionary; daring [with new innovations that break the rules]; and a commitment to excellence,” said Mayuree.

She said the new Siam Discovery will offer lifestyle experiments for individual consumers in their areas of interest. The complex will create hybrid experiences in retail space, which will break all retailing rules.

Charnchai Cherdchuwong-thanakorn, senior executive vice president for retail business development at Siam Piwat, |said the company will spend Bt300 million on the grand opening event and opening promotions of Siam Discovery, which aim to make Bangkok the retail hub of the Asean Economic Community (AEC) and the world’s favourite shopping destination.

“The new Siam Discovery marks the introduction to Thailand of a new retail concept – a hybrid retail destination spread across 40,000 square metres. We expect to double |our sales per square metre with the new concept as well as |reinforce our reputation as a thought-leader in Thailand’s retail sector, creating unprecedented destinations that compete with the best of the world’s destinations,” he said.

Charnchai said that highlight brands or stores at the new Siam Discovery centre will be divided into five different categories: everyday products; trend products; innovative products and services; sustainable products; and collaborations and Absolute Siam products.

“We expect the new Siam Discovery complex to draw approximately 100,000 shoppers a day in the first 12 months, of which 65 per cent will be Thais and the rest 35 per cent foreigners,” Charnchai said.